Social Media and Young People's Intimacies: A Digital Ethnography into the Breakdown of Public Trust in Social Media Platforms.

There have been significant investments in researching the concerning effects of social media on young people's intimacies (infringement of rights, social-psychological well-being, harmed sexual reputations, health, and bodies). Yet, this project argues there is a lack of understanding of how social media platforms and their value-driven operations (e.g., a focus on commercialization and datafication) are causing new public concerns and conflicts related to young people's intimacies. Therefore, this project investigates public controversies and societal breakdowns of trust in social media platforms. The proposed research explores two recent and high-impact cases in the public breakdown of trust in Instagram and Facebook. Using a digital ethnographic approach, this project maps these public concerns and controversies over young people's digital intimacies and examines the public demands for accountability from social media platforms. Situating this public breakdown of trust in a broader context, this project seeks to initiate a new agenda to study social media and young people's intimacies that go beyond the effects of social media. It argues for a serious engagement with the operations and core values of social media platforms and how they cause public conflict and debates on intimacy. This newly proposed agenda shifts the focus to the responsibility of social media platforms and their operations in understanding the impact of social media on young people's intimacy.

Keywords:YOUNGSTERS, SOCIAL MEDIA, PLATFORM ECONOMY, INTIMACY

Disciplines:Political economy of communication, Cultural media, Digital media